Air Force Bans Members From Reading Sites That Posted WikiLeaks Cables

On Tuesday, it was reported that the Air Force has blocked its personnel from reading Web sites that have posted WikiLeaks cables. This includes the sites of The New York Times, The Guardian, and "more than 25 other news organizations," according to the Times. Any Air Force member trying to access these sites from a work computer will get a message reading "Access Denied: Internet usage is logged and monitored." The ban only applies to sites that have posted "full classified documents, not just excerpts," says the Times, and it has not been adopted by the Army, Navy, or Marines. Since Air Force personnel can still access the blocked sites from home, bloggers are puzzling over why the Air Force bothered to take this step at all.

Not Everyone at the DoD AgreesThe Wall Street Journal reports that "one senior defense official questioned the wisdom of blocking the
newspaper sites or even prohibiting service members from visiting them
on military computers, arguing that the information has spread on the
Internet and that sites like the New York Times contain other, useful
information. The defense official said blocking the New York Times was a
misinterpretation of military guidance to avoid visiting websites that
post classified material."

Oh, Nice MoveChris Ryan at AMERICAblog rolls his eyes. "That will solve the problem because nobody in the USAF has a computer at
home. Nor would anyone have a mobile phone with a browser," Ryan writes. "How much is this going to cost the taxpayers to restrict data that is
easily reached? It's obvious that some in the upper echelons of the
military don't appreciate the severity of the economic crisis ... If they have enough
time and money to waste on this, they clearly have much too much budget
available."

How Do You Draw the Line? wonders Spencer Ackerman at Wired. "There's no way to stop with just the Times. Anyone who's set up
a GoogleAlert for 'WikiLeaks' will soon see that tons of news
organizations, blogs, Facebookers, tweeters, etc., have all repurposed
the content of those leaks." This makes him wonder: "Where does the site-blocking end? Why is it
less harmful for an airman to read a blog that pivots off a Guardian story on the cables than it is for him to go to Guardian.co.uk?"

Puts America at a Disadvantage, figures Randall Parker at ParaPundit. "Of course this web site blocking will just cut off useful sources of
news of what is going on in the world," writes Parker. "The Chinese and
Russians and other world powers will read thru every detail of the
leaked cables."

This Is Not How Information Security WorksThe Huffington Post quotes Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, who says that "in the past, government agencies have selectively blocked access to
private websites that post controversial, disputed or classified
information. But a block on the New York Times web site is really unheard of. It represents an extreme misunderstanding of information security policy."

Here You Go, Air Force Guys! "We doubt Intel is among the 25 blacklisted websites," writes Mike Vilensky at New York Magazine's Daily Intel. "So, guys, if you're reading this, click here for all of our WikiLeaks coverage. NSFW, apparently."